Correlates of antenatal and postnatal care among tribal women in India

Abstract

It is well established that those women who undergo full antenatal care check-up and give birth in a medical institution or whose delivery is attended by trained paramedical persons promotes child survival and reduces maternal mortality. In the light of the above, an attempt is made in this paper to relate the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the currently married Schedule Tribes’ women in eight districts of Chhatisgarh with factors associated with antenatal and postnatal care. Data for this study were taken from District Level Household Survey on Reproductive and Child Health (DLHSRCH 2002), a representative sample of 1569 Scheduled Tribes’ currently married women aged 15-44, residing in eight districts of Chhatisgarh. Adjusted effects (odds ratios) analysis has been used to find out the effects of antenatal and post-natal care on institutional delivery in Chhatisgarh. It is observed that majority of the Scheduled Tribes’ women, about 84 percent, have a low standard of living. Also, 74 per cent of the Scheduled Tribes’ women are illiterate. The finding of the adjusted effects (odds ratio) shows that giving birth in the medical institution for the Scheduled Tribes’ women who received full antenatal check up is 2.5 times higher than those women who did not receive any antenatal check-up. It suggests that majority of the currently married Scheduled Tribe women have low standard of living there is a need to improve their economic standard so that they can fulfill their basic needs.